# Platinum blonde!



## Little_Po (Jun 14, 2010)

Here's how I've been spending the last few days. If anyone else has a "platinum blonde" story, feel free to share.






I've had the hardest possible transition into platinum blonde; my hair was a boxed black dye before. I've been dying my hair at least twice a year for 11 years, so there are ALL kinds of pigments in it. I've never stripped the color, and I'd rarely bleached it before. I'm still in the process of platinum blonde, and so far it's taken me:

3 bleachings

3 toners

4 days

And endless swearing

It's still only platinum blonde on the roots, regardless of my technique (coating the ends first and working my way up). Needless to say, it's infuriatingly time-consuming but I think with ONE more bleach, I might be able to get everything to match.

I bought:

Lamaur 30 Minute Bleach

30 Volume Creme Developer

2 generic violet toners

1 Clairol 30D Flaxen Blonde toner (contains both blue and violet to combat orange and yellow, respectively)

Aveda: Color Conserve, Blue Malva, and Damage Remedy

Dumb Blonde Conditioner

I've hit the $100 mark a long time ago, and I'm still not at my ideal color. Most of the expense comes from aftercare (which is really the most important), but it's still a pricey choice for hair color. As for the actual process:

I used a Lamaur box bleach (I know, I know) that's specifically supposed to use the natural heat from your head to speed up the bleaching process (usually only took 30 minutes each time), coupled with a 30 developer creme. The box suggests 20 volume, but that's simply not an option for me. Going black to white takes some extra strength, though I was still too apprehensive about using 40.

On the first application, I stayed away from the roots entirely and my hair turned an orange color as expected. After a rinse and light shampoo with the Blue Malva, I conditioned it with Damage Remedy. I let my hair air dry and then had another go with the bleach (the box gives about 3 or 4 applications, so that was nice). This time I added a generic violet toner (came in a purple pouch) to the bleach and then applied the mixture all over, taking note of the special instructions the bleach comes with (they suggest you use one less pouch of powder each time). It came out nearly white at the roots on the first go, but the middle and ends were still at best a pale yellow, and at worst a copper orange. After this application, I shampooed again with Blue Malva, hoping to get some of the red out, and conditioned TWICE. Once with Damage Remedy, and once with a heavy duty conditioner I'd had in my house before. (I don't vouch for its awesomeness, but it's called Wen: Sweet Almond Mint in case you're curious). It gives a nice tingly feeling due to the mint. After putting on the Wen, I left it in and slept on it.

At this point (after two bleachings), my scalp was feeling a little compromised, but otherwise okay. My hair was super fluffy and dry, which made it a nightmare to comb, but I decided to try one more bleaching the next day.

So I woke up, rinsed out the conditioner from the night before and let my hair air dry before bleaching it again. I put another violet pouch toner in the mixture and applied. After about 10 minutes, I started feeling a really annoying stinging on the bottom parts of my scalp (right next to the ears). I just ignored it, thinking it wasn't a big deal. Left the stuff on for the recommended 30 minutes, and then rinsed. I have a really high pain tolerance, and didn't actually realize until later, but...

Apparently the third application melted a little skin and hair off near the nape of my neck. I noticed it later the same day, after I'd conditioned my hair and finally gave in to blowdrying it so I could leave the house (probably not a good idea). It felt like I had stuff stuck in my hair, and I couldn't quite figure out what. Later on, I brushed out the affected hair and realized it was pieces of my scalp!





After this I waited 2 days and 4 more conditionings (two overnight) before trying to just tone the hair (it was for the most part pale yellow blonde, but still ruddy in two very noticable sections of hair); Thankfully the red patches of irritated skin healed very quickly. I used the Clairol 30D toner, because I was too paranoid to try a silver one, and they were out of any good white ones I actually needed. I paired it with the same 30 volume developer and it came out...

Pretty much the same.

It looked GRAY while I had it on, but when I rinsed it after 30 minutes, there was no real difference. At this point, I'm exhausted with my hair. I'm going to try bleaching it ONE more time, perhaps just on the still ruddy areas. The frustrating part is that a lot of it looks almost there... but these two spots near my ears just will NOT budge on the redness. If a 4th bleaching doesn't work, I don't know what to do.

So I'll leave it alone for the rest of the day, and just sleep with conditioner again tonight. Hopefully tomorrow will bring the breakthrough I so desperately want. As far as toners go, I'm pretty ignorant. If my hair is as LIGHT as I want it (as far as JUST how shading goes) and I just need the COLOR to be different, should I just bleach it again, or should I try another toner? I'm starting to wonder if toners are even useful at all.


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